Why do we hate our bodies so much!? Because we are programmed to! Hating and disliking our bodies becomes as natural as us believing the sky is blue. Most of us are struggling with our experience of living in our bodies. But WHY?
Our body is not the debt we owe to society. We get to live EXACTLY as we are!
Whether we realize it or not, our minds have been primed to believe these ideas about our bodies. The diet culture industry is a $70 billion dollar a year industry profiting off of our insecurities. I too have fallen into this trap more than a time or two. I’m sure you have too! AND of course you have. Messages about our bodies needing to be small enough, pretty enough, acceptable enough come at us in full force through millions of ads and media DAILY.
How on earth would we believe anything different when this is the messaging we receive 98% of the time. Negative body image is a real issue. But, it’s not our body that is the problem, it’s society and how we have socially learned to live in our bodies in our society.
Our bodies can hold pain, hurt, resentment and fear because we appear different than we believe we should.
Here’s a quick breakdown as to why we hate our bodies:
We are programmed not to like our bodies!
Since the beginning of childhood you were taught to be unhappy in your body by photoshopped media and now filtered images through social media. Through marketing and messaging we are informed that if we have that great body it comes with success, love, happiness, popularity, etc. Just watch a perfume ad and you will see what I mean.
Beautiful is not synonymous with thin. However, most of us covertly believe this.
Thin does not equal thin. Thin means you’re gorgeous, smart, funny, lovable, successful, powerful, popular, charismatic, entertaining, valued and the list goes on and on and on. Who would not want to be all of those things? We all want those things because at the core of being human it touches what we want. Love and connection and for others, money, power, success.
Diet culture is all around us!
I cannot turn on the radio, browse a magazine aisle, go to the grocery store, get on social media, have a conversation with extended family members or friends without the topics of dieting, body image, weight loss being part of the conversation. It is everywhere!
This goes hand in hand with point #1. We believe better things will come to us if we are “healthy,” “fit,” and “thin.” The reality is that we can have health apart from weight loss.
But weight loss is big money! What medical provider, dietitian, coach etc. doesn’t want to jump on that bandwagon when everyone is searching for the secret answer?
Here’s the secret: Weight loss is not sustainable over time. That is why Weight Watchers is constantly revamping their programs, people yo-yo diet and people continue to feel like they failed.
This is a huge topic that cannot be fully explained in this post, but there will be more to come! Promise!
Fatphobia is a REAL issue!
Our society is unkind to people who live in larger bodies. Our
Healthcare system fails people living in larger bodies and often gets ignored for real health complaints because of size.
This isn’t just a healthcare issue either. It’s how everyone talks about gaining weight as
being a bad thing. If you have gained weight, it is like you have caught the plague.
People love to comment on weight loss but do you often hear weight gain talked about in a positive light? I’m going to bet that’s almost never happened!
It’s understandable why people hate their bodies as they gain weight when diet culture overvalues our drive to be thin. When our bodies do gain weight, we feel as though we have failed at something.
Let me tell you, gaining weight is a healthy, perfectly normal part of the human experience. Due to genetic factors, we actually have little control over our weight and how our body looks. We can combat fatphobia by acknowledging, tolerating and accepting that all bodies are ok to exist as they are in our society.
We NORMALIZE restrictive dieting and weight loss efforts.
This point wraps up the previous three points. We are all programmed to dislike our bodies, diet culture is everywhere and fatphobia is a huge issue. Therefore, we are constantly surrounded by this language, lack of acceptance for larger bodies and the drive to be thin or smaller. It can feel like a challenge to find people or groups who do not buy into these ideals. BUT, they do exist. When you are constantly looking at images telling you to be thin, commercials to diet and messages that weight gain is bad, you’re likely going to believe it. To change your mindset is to leave behind the bull$h*t that tells you that you are not good enough unless you are smaller, thinner, eating the “right” things, exercising enough etc.
Your body is not the issue. Your body never was the issue. How we are programmed, informed to think about our bodies, how society treats larger bodies and how a large majority of society conforms to these ideas is the issue!
You are in control about what you want to believe! You no longer have to fall into the traps of diet culture and can live freely, enjoyably and without shame around your body and what you do or do not eat.
Your body gets to exist exactly as it is! It’s time to change our societal ideas of what it means to be beautiful.
Comments